The Taipei City Government is serious about implementing urban renewal plans, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said as the city government passed its first urban renewal plan yesterday.
Taipei began promoting the Urban Renewal Project in 2010, aiming to ameliorate a lack of living essentials, increase public assets and modernize equipment in aging communities and its buildings.
According to the latest data from the city’s urban renewal division, there have been 51 applications for urban renewal under the project, with an estimate of more than 3,600 people being helped to move into new homes.
The announcement of a plan to replace a batch of old four-to-five-story apartments with a 23-story building, allowing former residents of the old apartments to exchange their houses for new ones of the same size, came after a city council meeting yesterday.
Hau said that the approval of the project would not only help improve people’s living conditions, it also showed that the city government was serious about implementing the policy.
The approved project is near the Nangang Software Park and other important developing areas, and Hau said that the approval would not only bring new life to the area around it, it would also make residents more confident in participating in urban renewal efforts, Hau said.
The city government said the new development would take up 2,800 ping (9,240m2). Construction is scheduled to commence in 2015 and be finished in 2018.
The renewal project would offer living quarters for 430 persons, as opposed to the 127 people now living in the area, and after the project’s completion the area will have 1,300 ping of pathways, the city government said.
It added that there would also be 122 homes of adequate size — ranging from 18 to 30 ping — at the site.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it